Detectives have spent the past month trying to figure out who killed a Silver Spring mother and 20-year veteran employee of the U.S. Department of Transportation.
“At this point, the missing piece is not in another investigative technique,” Sgt. Eli Kinser said Tuesday. “The missing piece is information that only someone in this community possesses.”
Police ask residents to recall that day
Hanna Wegayehou, 61, was struck and killed in a hit-and-run in Silver Spring at around 1:14 p.m. Friday, June 19 as she was crossing Crestmoor Drive at Colesville Road in the Four Corners area. The driver was going from Crestmoor Drive and making a right turn northbound onto Colesville Road.
Police believe the driver’s car is a dark-colored 2009-2014 Lexus RX350. They estimate there are around 4,000 registered Lexus SUVs in the area in that year range.
“We are not asking anyone to accuse their neighbors,” Kinser said during a press conference Tuesday at public safety headquarters in Gaithersburg. “We’re simply asking people to think back to June 19. Did you notice a vehicle with fresh damage? Did someone tell you a story that didn’t quite add up? Did a friend, neighbor or coworker, or family member suddenly remember something or have damage to a Lexus or unexpectedly have one repaired?”
Even if the information feels insignificant, police say to let them evaluate it.
Anonymous tips can be made by calling1-866-411-8477. The public can also submit a tip here. There is a $20,000 reward.
“We truly believe that whoever lives in that neighborhood is the missing link to solving this crime because that’s not a cut-through,” said Capt. David Reed. “They had to have been coming from a house or something in that neighborhood. We truly believe that there is a missing link out there.”
“We’re heartbroken”
Wegayehou’s son, Nate Tinbite, tearfully spoke about his mother, who he says was “a walking angel.”
“We’re heartbroken,” Tinbite said. “We’re frustrated and we cannot make sense of it because there is no sense to be made.”
Wegayehou walked in the neighborhood often and was likely on her way back from Trader Joe’s, according to her family.
“My mother was everything — and the unfairness of it — that a life like hers could be ended this way in an instant by someone who didn’t even stop is something that we’ll have to carry for the rest of our lives.”
Wegayehou was an Ethiopian immigrant who made Silver Spring her home more than 30 years ago. She raised her family there and worked as a federal civil servant for 20 years in the Department of Transportation.
“She made everyone feel welcome… and she made the people she loved feel wrapped up in her warmth,” Tinbite said.
Wegayehou leaves behind numerous family members “who feel her absence every single day,” Tinbite said.
Available camera footage “not that great”
Kinser said there are traffic cameras in the area of the hit-and-run, but those cameras are designed to monitor traffic conditions rather than capture crimes. So, the available information from those cameras is “not that great.”
As for home cameras in the area, a lot of the homes are raised on a hill and cameras are set to capture when there is movement in the field of view, not necessarily the road. “So, we have not gotten a lot of great video footage from that area as well,” Kinser said.
